Yes, it has been a while since The Guru has posted non-release news. Here’s some Firefox news from the past month. Firefox for iOS adds Security Features (The Mozilla Blog)- Changes to the Firefox Password Manager now allow iPhone/iPad users to add a 4-Digit password to the password manager for extra security. Inviting Conversation (Mitchell’s Blog) - Mitchell Baker, Mozilla Foundation Chair is looking to invite conversation about the Open Internet, Mozilla and Mozilla’s mission in a series of upcoming less “official” blog posts. Shipping Some Firefox Features Outside of the Release Cycle (Mozilla Future Releases) - Now new bloat features will be introduced more often and…
Firefox For Android
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Mozilla is moving right along with getting Firefox 41 ready to ship for the September 22nd release. Having had a chance to play with the current Beta version of Firefox 41, here are THREE major changes users should be aware of to avoid headaches upon updating/downloading: New ‘New Tab’ behavior. Gone are the days users could set their preference as to what comes up when they open a new tab via the browser.newtab.url preference in about:config. Nope, that was being ‘exploited’ so Mozilla removed this functionality that has been in Firefox since Firefox 13 (June 2012). There is a simple solution, Custom New…
The Mozilla Add-ons Blog has confirmed extension signing will be implemented in Firefox 40 for Android as well. Further, the ‘enforcement’ schedule will follow that of the desktop Firefox version. Automatic signing for Firefox for Android Add-ons hosted on AMO will begin soon.
This is a continuation of The Three Pillars post as the article referenced in that post also discusses this as well. In another email, Dave Camp is “Revisiting how we build Firefox”. This one is a lot more technical as it focuses a lot on getting Firefox away from XUL and XBL. However, in the beginning of the email he does talk about speeding up deployment: Since Firefox began, the industry has continually evolved how it deploys code to users, and today it isn’t done on an 18-week cycle. We think there are big wins to be had in shortening the time that new features reaches users. Critical…
Mozilla released the next regular and ESR versions of Firefox on Tuesday, May 12th with Firefox 38. New features in this version include: New tab-based preferences (Preferences panel is now its own tab) Ruby annotation support Complete details can be found in the Firefox 38 Release Notes. Depending on their update settings, users will be prompted to update within the next 24-48 hours. Users can also manually update by going to the Firefox Help Menu and selecting About Firefox and follow the prompts to update. Alternatively users can also down and manually install the update via getfirefox.com site. The next planned release for Firefox is…
Mozilla released an emergency update to Firefox 37 on April 3, 2015 with Firefox 37.0.1. This update did address start-up crashes due to graphics hardware and third party software. However, there were two security fixes to address a couple recently released Mozilla Foundation Security Advisories (MFSA): MFSA 2015-44 Critical: Certificate verification bypass through the HTTP/2 Alt-Svc header [Firefox 37 Desktop] MFSA 2015-43 High: Loading privileged content through Reader mode [Firefox 37 Android/Firefox 38 Beta (Desktop)] The now disabled HTTP/2 Alt-Svc header aka Opportunistic Encryption For Firefox was introduced in the Firefox 37 from earlier in the week. There has been several security issues/breaches…
” … The browser extension uBlock so far has only been available for desktop devices. The extension was released for Chromium-based browsers first and then later on for Firefox as well.“Today, a version for Firefox on Android has been released that users of the browser can install to get the same blocking functionality as on the desktop. … “ Source: gHacks Tech News
“Firefox for Android can now mirror your browser to the TV thanks to new support for Google’s Chromecast.“This is one of several goodies tucked away inside version 34, which is rolling out in the Google Play Store. …” Source: PCWorld More Firefox for Android adds Chromecast support, newly polished theme
One of the new features with Firefox 32 is “Easier back, forward, reload, and bookmarking through the context menu” Mozilla has consolidated the context menu a bit by replacing the text for Back, Forward, Reload and Bookmark This Page options with the respective toolbar icons. Old Context Menu (Firefox 1.0 to 31) New Context Menu (Firefox 32+) Note: the items listed in your context menu may vary depending on what add-ons you are using. Now, I hadn’t really noticed this until recently as the only time I really use the context menu in Firefox is for the Copy Page Title and Location…
Overview of Home Panel add-ons “Firefox 30 got released a couple of days ago and with it came a new feature for the Android version of the browser that Mozilla named Hubs.“While it launched with Firefox 30, it is not really advertised in the mobile browser itself which means that you will have to do some research on your own to find out more about it.“The Hubs feature more or less adds an API to Firefox for Android to add contents to the browser’s home screen.“As you may know, the home screen of the browser displays top sites, the browsing…